I kid you not, this guy was walking around NYC with this lizard. After I took this photo, a cop stopped him and asked if he could take a picture.

Is THAT my husband?

Hubby's getting fashionable! Apparently there is a trend toward purple ties. He should know.

A Parade!

 

My husband mentioned on our walk yesterday that he had seen the NYPD out in force that morning which usually means there is a parade somewhere. Boy was there! We heard the noise of it five blocks away as we approached. It was the NYC Gay Pride Parade. For a city where people walk everywhere, naturally the police make pathways for you to cross the parade path, but you had to wait a good 10 minutes. It was extremely long, because an hour later we crossed it going the other way and it was still going on full force.

Husker Du?

If you really want to get to know your way around here, it helps if you played a lot of Husker Du as a kid. Remember that game where you uncover two items at a time trying to find their match? That's what you have to do here. If you see an interesting place you want to return to on 56th and 3rd, for example, you had better link up that place with that specific grid or streets, because if you go to 56th and 3rd you won't see it from there. Neither will you see it from 57th and 3rd, nor 57th and 2nd, nor 55th and 3rd.

I tried to attend church yesterday, but I set off from my apartment not having the address. I was so sure I would just run into it if I headed a little west and a little south.

It wasn't meant to be.

Put me in a bad mood the rest of the day.

I saw the president!

Well, at least I saw his motorcade! I was coming out of the UN tour, and the street was blocked as if for a parade. Hundreds of NY police were everywhere for blocks. I overheard a cop telling people that the president was coming through, and minutes later he did. I hope you can view this video. It's just a bunch of official looking vehicles (about 50!) turning the corner from the midtown tunnel onto First Avenue, but I was pretty excited.

Tour the United Nations for sense of hope.

Yesterday I took a 45-minute guided tour of the United Nations. I highly recommend doing this if you're in NYC.

If you are EVER feeling despair about the world's problems and wondering if anything good is going on, just learn a few facts about this great organization where thousands of programs help make the world a better place.

I spent two hours this morning reading over their website. I actually signed up to donate monthly to their free rice project. Take a look at this interactive site that lets you compete on trivia games with others all over the world. As you progress, you also feed the hungry. I'm not sure how in the world that works, but I'm guessing it is funded privately. Anyway, there's no cost to you, and you can learn and have fun doing it: www.freerice.com.

Here's one of the pictures I took outside the UN. It says it all.

Don't be afraid, it's just a sample sale.

What is a sample sale? Today I decided to find out when I got my daily email from Daily Candy (here's the link for this site that handpicks daily things to do in certain cities: www.dailycandy.com) listing several that were happening today.

 

Sample sales are generally one- or two-day events that designers offer to get rid of production samples. They are not heavily advertised, so you have to be on a mailing list, hunt for them online, or run across a sign on a sidewalk. They are usually held in the designer's office, so I was a little intimidated going to my first one here in NYC. 

The first one was for fine Italian linens. It was held on the 2nd floor of a large warehouse-like building. Six-foot tables were laid out end to end and cardboard signs were set up yard-sale like explaining the items and their highly discounted prices. This particular one was cash only for purchases under $250 which would buy you a nice queen bed sheet set worth $1,000 retail.

Another was on the 17th floor of an office building where a doorman was keeping an eye on the building's foot traffic. It was for Elle MacPherson intimates, and they had two small rooms full of merchandise for very good prices. At a third sale, I peeked into their very plush office and was told the date had been changed. 

It was fun looking for these sales and going into some of the offices of the fashion district, but I was all over the city and my dogs are barking.

Poking Around

On my walk today I came upon a strange site -- people poking and punching these giant inflatables. It was a part of a new public play ground for kids and adults where colorful toy-like balloons tower over you making you feel like a little kid. This park just opened as part of the second mile of The High Line, an abandoned elevated railway that's being converted into a walking path/park along the Hudson. You can read more about the inflatables here: aolartists.com/rainbowcity/video. You can read about the High Line here: www.thehighline.org. I poked and punched a few of them -- apparently too hard because a staff guy told me not to get too rough with them. Whoopsie!